Thomas Ledesma | 17 nov. 1995
Type of Cycling: Road and track
Tell us a little about the cycling culture in Buenos Aires: In Buenos Aires the cycling culture is enormous, as the Capital City of Argentina it has people from many places. Is a big city where you can find every type of cycling well connected with each other and nowadays, the bicycle is more common as a way of transportation, as well as a professional matter. Road cycling and MTB has their own power here from many years ago, the one that is growing with only a few years in the scene is the fixed gear.
Little by little you can see more fixed bikes on the streets, riding freely, making deliveries or training at the circuits. I’m sure that in a few years it will grow exponentially.
What is unique about cycling in BsAs? Buenos Aires is an incredible city, it has many places to visit and luckily you can do all of them riding a bike. The bad news is that we do not have many mountains in the city, and it is hard to train climbing here, but you can drive a few kilometers outside the city and you will be able to do it. Anyways it does not matter, because in the city you have a lot of circuits and good places where amateur and pro cyclists can easily practice and improve their technique and see your improvements; like any person who can take a bike and ride from A to B. I believe that the best of cycling is the freedom, the fact of riding a bicycle, finding new places and meeting new people.
What inspired you to start riding? I've always loved the bicycle, when I was a child I learned to ride and roll it, I remember my uncle who used to ride a racing bicycle when I was a kid and to see him always intrigued me. I didn’t have any influence from a direct parent or close friends in the cycling world. One day a friend of mine, who is a bicycle mechanic, told me “yo te veo frente a un piñón fijo” (I can see you riding fixed gear), I just laughed because there is a kid’s clown with that name, but I was intrigued at the same time and made a research about fixed gear. I started looking for that kind of bikes and I fell in love with them. So, little by little I bought my first brakeless bike and rode it from home to work everyday. In the meantime, I met more and more people, incredible people and the feeling of joying only grew up. At today, I've already owned many different types of bicycles, many unforgettable experiences and I’m still in the search of some new, in my two different cycling worlds, road and fixed.
What do you recommend to a cyclist who is going to Argentina? If you have the great opportunity to visit this city there is a lot to do and I don’t recommend you to come for a short period of time, come and enjoy!
Here you can go from south to north and you will find bike shops all the way, also coffees and beer places, all of them bike-friendly! In the city fixed scene, we have the tradition to meet and roll around, go and eat some good pizzas or grab a beer, and also when road cycling, we usually stop at some coffee shop to get some caffeine.
If you are a fixed gear passionate, there are some small and cool places to visit and I’m sure you will love them, as private workshops like “Born in Garage” and “Midori Bikes”, and also you can visit the public ones like “Cycles Imperio”. And about coffee and beer places, hit me a message when you come and I will give you a tour.
Best cycling moment so far?  For me is kind of hard to think in only one moment, you can mention a race because it implies many different cycling situations and emotions, but it’s pointless to me because I don’t have many of them in my pocket. So, I guess the best moment for me is when you are riding and you feel realized, that moment when all the bad things disappear and you are filled with joy, the moment when you come out with your friends, people who share the same passion with you, even when those friends are very different from each other, that moment when you feel your limits but something tells you to keep going and that's the moment when you grow. My best cycling moment is to get on my bike, for commute or racing, and connect with myself.
What do you love about cycling culture? This world is very strange, many people who don’t live this passion could say that we are crazy, they see us waking early in the morning to go and spend energy, to get tired and maybe to get an injury, and the next day we are still there, no matter the weather or the surrounding. What I love the most of this world is the connection, even when is a competitive world like any other sport, in cycling we share beyond any disagreement, and is to ride on a bicycle. You can meet people all over the world, with different ideas, beliefs and languages, but anyways you can perfectly communicate with them thanks to cycling. I love the idea to have a connection with people with the same passion for cycling.
Is there anything you’d like to see improve in the cycling community? Particularly in the fixed world, I would love to see more and more people riding in the street and always smiling, create only good connections and relations, with no hate. You always cross with that person who can’t see beyond himself, but this world will pull it down and the good fellas will keep growing. Racing is a double-edged sword, we can lose at it, but if we can achieve something from it we can learn a lot and keep improving. I would love to see a day where any kind of cyclist can join in a ride and only have fun.
